Field of the Invention
The invention relates to systems and methods for teaching students the proper application of wind usage for the most efficient means to play a musical instrument, which may include, for example, teaching the students how to set their teeth, how to blow, and how to avoid tension in the jaw, shoulders and body.
Related Art
In the field of wind instrument pedagogy, there exists the perennial problem with each new year's recruits of teaching the proper application of wind usage for the most efficient means to play the instrument. The difficulty is in trying to teach students how to set their teeth, how to blow, and how to avoid tension in the jaw/shoulders/body. The majority of problems for even weathered musicians typically result from a fundamental problem with the application of wind.
A problem commonly experienced in teaching wind instrument students is that the majority of students, meaning in the range of 90% of them, have a poor mental concept of, and therefore poor physical control over, healthy and proper natural breathing as well as breath support (air flow) needed to play a wind instrument. The problem is exacerbated when various traditional teaching approaches result in students developing more severe problems in two areas: biting down with the jaw; and tension throughout the body, especially the throat, neck, and shoulders, which is detrimental to achieving optimal wind instrument performance.
What is needed is a solution which provides a binary result as the indicator of success or failure by the user to provide proper breath support and achieve a successful response. “Binary” is used here to mean the feedback indicator is either “on” or “off” (activated or not), and the student must provide a very exact amount of air flow to achieve the proper result and to activate the binary indicator—no incorrect input of air flow can activate a false positive indicator. Further, the solution should simultaneously force the student to suppress their own negative actions that most commonly accompany young students' efforts to achieve the result. These actions include tension in the upper torso and biting.
When students are told to take a deep breath, they instantly raise their shoulders in a “suck-in-your-gut” routine. This is a socially learned behavior that has no positive impact on proper breathing. Instead, it actually provides a negative impact to the process by increasing physical tension in the shoulders, neck and throat, which lead to restricted air flow through the body, and consequently a very poor sound from the musical instrument. When students are told to “blow harder”, they instantly try to give more effort to their endeavor, but mistakenly do this by bearing down, which leads to the aforementioned tension in the upper torso, but also causes biting with the jaw. Students do this because it is a more familiar sensation of ‘working harder’ to achieve their goal. They do not realize it is actually working against them achieving their goal by causing more tension.